Acer Aspire 5633WLMi - Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66 GHz - 15.4" TFT

...Having narrowed it down, the Acer Aspire 5633WLMi LX.AG50J.169 was the clear winner. I bought it for £562.83 plus £12.99 next day delivery from Technoworld.com at the beginning of March, but you can get it for £549 from them currently.

I decided the best way to start my search was to buy What Laptop magazine as I didn’t really know anything about computer specifications. Armed with my new found computer knowledge I was more realistic ...
...Lenovo 3000 N100 and the Acer Aspire 5633WLMi, both with the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 graphics card. The Lenovo was only £499 compared to £563 for the Acer but the Acer has a dual core processor (the best apparently), double the memory, and a bigger hard drive. I decided for the sake of £60 the Acer was the better choice and would last me longer. I had never heard of Acer before, so I was a bit dubious about buying one, especially as their laptops ... more

I had wanted a laptop for a long time but had never been able to justify the cost when I already had a desktop computer. With the prospect of planning my wedding and spending hours on the internet searching for suppliers etc, I wanted to be able to do that from the comfort of my settee, so I now found myself with a reason (clutching at straws here) to buy a laptop. I spent months looking for the right one to buy, I must have looked at every laptop available under £700. My initial budget went out the window (I stupidly thought I might be able to get a basic one for under £300) and my list of requirements increased from just basic word processing, spreadsheets and internet to being able to play my favourite game (Civilization 4). Having narrowed it down, the Acer Aspire 5633WLMi LX.AG50J.169 was the clear winner. I bought it for £562.83 plus £12.99 next day delivery from Technoworld.com at the beginning of March, but you can get it for £549 from them currently.

I decided the best way to start my search was to buy What Laptop magazine as I didn’t really know anything about computer specifications. Armed with my new found computer knowledge I was more realistic about what I could get for my ever expanding budget (now set at £500). In the process of my search I realised just how awful my desktop computer was and that whatever laptop I bought was going to be better than it. I had wanted a laptop that came with Microsoft Office but soon found out that none did (according to the man in PCWorld). I basically wanted the cheapest laptop I could find with a dedicated graphics card so I could play games on it as well. In the end the choice came down to a Lenovo 3000 N100 and the Acer Aspire 5633WLMi, both with the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 graphics card. The Lenovo was only £499 compared to £563 for the Acer but the Acer has a dual core processor (the best apparently), double the memory, and a bigger hard drive. I decided for the sake of £60 the Acer was the better choice and would last me longer. I had never heard of Acer before, so I was a bit dubious about buying one, especially as their laptops are so cheap for the specifications you get, but I have no regrets and I guess with the Sony’s of the world you are just paying a premium for the name.

The specifications of the Acer are head and shoulders above anything else in the price range. It has the latest Intel processor, an Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66 GHz. The processor (or CPU – Central Processing Unit) is the part that does all the calculations, it’s the brains of the computer so to speak. The better the processor the faster the machine will be. It comes with 1GB of RAM (Random Access Memory). This is the computers short term memory for the processor. I have heard that 256 MB of RAM is needed just to run Windows, so the minimum RAM you should aim to have is 512MB, and the more you have the quicker your machine will be able to do stuff. For those of you who are interested, the RAM is DDR II SDRAM and the laptop has 2MB of L2 cache, but I must admit I do not have a clue what this means.

It has a 120 GB hard drive, and this is split into two drives of 60 GB each. The hard drive is where all your data is stored. This is rather a lot, and far more than I need. To put this in context I’ve had my desktop computer for at least 3 years, it has all my photos and music on it, and I haven’t even filled half of its 80 GB hard drive yet. I don’t think I will ever have the problem of not having enough space with this laptop.

My model (some versions of the Aspire 5633 don’t have this graphics card) has an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 dedicated graphics card with a turbocache supporting up to 256MB. This was my main requirement for my laptop as if you wish to play more advanced games (e.g. other than solitaire) an integrated card is not good enough (have found this out through personal experience with my desktop computer). I have no desire to play the latest games so I did not need a top of the range graphics card, but this one handles my beloved Civilization 4 perfectly. In fact the graphics look amazing, and the last time I played Civ 4 I got rather fed up with my Fiancé commenting on how good the graphics were every time he walked past.

The laptop comes with Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005 and Norton Antivirus preloaded along with Acer Launch Manager, NTI CD-Maker, Acer GridVista, Acer Arcade, Adobe Reader, and Acer Empowering Technology. It is Vista Premium compatible, and mine came with a free upgrade for this which I had to send off for. This has arrived but I have heard that Vista is a bit unstable at the moment so I am going to wait until they have fixed these teething problems before changing operating systems (another daunting task).

The laptop is silver in colour and very thin and light. The dimensions of the laptop are 35.8cm (W) x 26.5cm (D) x 3.6 cm (H) and it weighs 2.8 kg. To open it you slide the catches on the front and lift the screen at the same time which I find can be a bit tricky and some people might struggle (namely my fiancé and it causes arguments about whether he is being careful enough with my precious laptop, sad I know). I find it best to slide the catch and lift with one hand whilst holding the base of the machine with the other. The machine feels well built and sturdy which considering it is at the lower end of the market is surprising.

The screen is a 15.4 inch widescreen TFT and is very nice and bright, and I have not found any problems with glare. It has something called CrystalBrite, from what I can gather this means the screen has an anti-reflective coating which gives the screen brighter and crisper colours. The screen feels quite solid when open, you feel that it is going to stay up. At the top of the screen the laptop also has a 1.3 mega pixel camera which rotates through 225 degrees, but I have never used this.

The keyboard is well laid out and well proportioned. It takes some getting used to not having the numeric keypad, but that is common to most laptops. The keyboard takes up 2/3rds of the base and is the width of the laptop. The keys are large and don't look like they are going to break. There are four buttons at the top of the keyboard. One button gives you access to the Acer Empowering Technology System. This makes it easier for you to access frequently used functions and manage your Acer notebook. One of the buttons opens your internet browser and another button your email software. The forth button is user definable. To the right of the keyboard there are some media shortcut buttons, such as volume, that are rather handy. The mouse pad is located centrally in the bottom third of the base. The majority of it is a touch pad that is very sensitive. You also get a left mouse button and right mouse button and a silver 4 way scroll button which is very useful. Either side of the mouse pad there are two areas you can rest your wrists on. There is an internal microphone for sound recording located to the far right of the palm rest.

The battery is a 6 cell lithium ion battery with a stated run time of up to 2 hours. This is about right, and as the average battery on a laptop these days is about 3 hours, this laptop wouldn’t be the best choice if you wanted to take it out and about, but for home use it is fine. The power cable, which is supplied, plugs into the back of the machine and is quite long so you don't have to sit near to a power point if you need to use it plugged in at home.

There are two speakers on the front of the machine. These are quite good but I have found that they are not loud enough if you want to watch TV or a film on the laptop. The slot for your headphone is on the front of the machine so it is easy to plug them in, also the line in and microphone jacks are located next to in on the front.

The laptop has 4 USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 ports, two located on the left side of the machine and the other two on the rear. USB ports are very useful as most peripherals (e.g. printers, broadband) will connect to your computer via USB these days, and with USB they are automatically recognised and installed. USB 2.0 is currently the fastest version of USB with transfer speeds of up to 480 Mbps (megabits per second). If you get fed up with the laptops touchpad you can connect a mouse to the laptop via USB, and I have also seen a USB Numeric Keypad. This will most likely be how you will connect your phone, camera and flash memory stick to the laptop, so the more ports the better. I think 4 ports is plenty. There is also a 10/100Mbps Ethernet port on the right side, not entirely sure what this is for but I think this is for use with networks. The 5-in-1 card reader is on the right hand side too. This accepts Memory Stick (MS), Memory Stick Pro (MS PRO), Multimedia Card (MMC), Secure Digital (SD) and XD-Picture Card (xD). I find this very handy as my digital camera uses a SD card and I can just take the card out of my camera and slot it into the laptop without having to find the USB cable (which is never where I think it is). There is also a slot for a type II PC Card. Also located on the rear is the RJ-11 modem point, an S-Video/TV out port (to connect to a TV or display device) and a VGA port (to connect to an external monitor). It has a button on the front for Bluetooth but as far as I am aware my model does not have Bluetooth.

This laptop is Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity, also known as Wireless LAN) enabled. This lets you set up a home network wirelessly if you have a wireless router, and if you connect your broadband to your router (or get a router with a modem) you can access the internet wirelessly from anywhere in your house and share it with other laptops and computers. This laptop has IEEE 802.11 a/b/g. 802.11g is the most common form of Wi-Fi at the moment, and has data transfer speeds of up to 54 Mbps, which is fine for surfing the internet and file sharing. I currently access the internet via ADSL broadband connected to the laptop via USB. We only have 1Mbps broadband but I find the laptop is fast enough, I have watched videos on youtube.com with no problem or delay, whereas my desktop always struggled with this. I have not used the Wi-Fi so can’t comment on this at the moment. I have just ordered a router so will update when I have this up and running.

The laptop has an integrated DVD DVD-RAM/DVDRW (+R double layer) drive, this is located on the right, and looks a bit flimsy when open. When you first put a disk into it is very noisy, but soon quietens down. This drive lets you burn stuff onto DVD’s and CD’s, and is very easy to use.

This laptop came with one years collect and return manufacturers warranty. It also has international travellers warranty. I have not needed to use this or the customer support. The instruction manual is very easy to understand, and as it also only has the English version of the manual in it, it isn't the size of a small novel.

I would like the think I have a fairly average knowledge of computers (I can install programs with no problem and can put the cables in the right hole if needed) but setting up a computer from scratch scared me. I needn’t have worried as it was very easy. The instruction manual doesn’t contain any setup information but you get a card with the laptop that shows you how to set it up. It comes with all cables you need but it is worth having some blank CD/DVDs handy when it comes to doing the recovery disk. To set the laptop up you turn it on and a wizard takes you through everything, and even prompts you to make a recovery installation CD/DVD for you. I must say I think even my Mum could have set it up (no offence mum) and she has been known to struggle to turn a computer on before. During the setup I must have selected the wrong keyboard option (I went for the defaults) as when I press the @ key I get a “ and visa versa, and I still cannot work out how to rectify this (if you know how please could you let me know), so a tip when setting this laptop up – do not select the USA keyboard. This flummoxed me when I came to setup my broadband connection as I needed to enter my email address, and instead of the @ I was getting a “.

The laptop comes with Norton Antivirus, which every time I switch the laptop on pops up to tell me that everything is fine or that something needs fixing. I don't particularly like Norton and wish it hadn't been preinstalled. I have had no problems installing and running software. The first thing I did once the laptop was all setup, and before I connected to the internet, was to make sure the Windows firewall was turned on, which it was. I then went to softpedia.com and downloaded free versions of some important software. First I installed AVG antivirus and did a scan. I then installed Zonealarm and Spybot and did a scan with these. After that I installed Civ 4 to ensure it would work (I had major problems when I installed it on my PC) and there were no issues. I have also since downloaded Firefox (internet browser, much better than explorer) and Open Office (free version of Microsoft Office, not as good but then it is free so can’t complain) and have had no problems.

The machine is very quiet, and even when the cooling fans kick in it is still quite quiet. The laptop can get quite hot if it has been on for a while and you are using it on your lap as the cooling vent on the bottom is blocked by your left leg. I am going to get a pad to put the laptop on so that air can circulate underneath as I am rather paranoid about it overheating. The only time it has ever crashed it had been on for 7 hours when Civ 4 decided to freeze. Not sure if this was down to the laptop getting too hot or the game as it is not uncommon for the game to crash and I have not had problems with the laptop before. Apart from that (the error did occur with the game, something to do with infinite loops, not a clue what though) I have never had a problem with the laptop since I got it two months ago.

My only gripe with the machine is that it takes forever to start up. I timed it. I haven't bothered with user accounts so when I turn the machine on it goes straight into Windows. It takes 2 minutes 40 until everything has loaded and you can actually use the machine, I don't know how this compares to other laptops but I find this slow and frustrating. Once started up speed is not an issue, it easily copes with all tasks. I normally like to have a dozen things open at once and it copes effortlessly. I find it best to turn it on then go make a cup of tea while I wait for it to start up.

Overall I am very happy with my laptop. The laptop is very good value for money, and it is solidly built. As the battery life is quite poor it is probably best for home users. I definitely would recommend it.

Update

I finally got my Dad to fix the keyboard issue having tried to do it myself and failed. Now all my buttons are in the right place and I have a £ sign again (for some reason the Americans do not feel the need to have a £ on their keyboards even though we have $ on ours).

I finally got fed up with long broadband cables and got myself a wireless router. The wireless did work well on this laptop, it connected to it quickly and did not drop the signal. Unfortunately I have fallen out with my router as it keeps dropping the connection and I constantly get the error message 797 cannot establish a connection. I am certain it is the router not the laptop as this still happens even when connected using the Ethernet cable and also happens with the desktop computer.

Slightly off topic but my cats love to try to stand on my laptop, they make a beeline for it. So if I leave it sitting around I come back to find a cat sat on it, or if I am using it they come and try to stand on the keyboard. This sounds quite cute but I have noticed that if they sit on the lid it bends slightly and I am worried about the keys imprinting on the screen.

My only grumble with the laptop is the battery life. I have found that the battery lasts an hour and a half maximum, which is really very poor. 

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